Morning journal and courier., 1887-06-23
News by Telegraph
FROM ALL QUARTERS.
DEPEW'S TIMELY WORDS
To The Veterans Of The
Potomac.
ECHOES FROM THE JUBILEE.
Thousands Of Children In
Hyde Park.
A DEATH DEALING TORNADO.
Bloody Ending of a Ken
lucky Feud.
A DEATH DEALING TORNADO.
THE VETERANS OF THE POTOMAC

ChaHnceY M. Depew Makes a Master
ly Grafton ON the Issues of the Day.
SARATOGA, June 22.-The society of the
Army of the Potomac at its reunion to-day
elected these officers: President, General J..
G. Robinson, of New York; treasurer, Lieu
tenant Colonel Samuel Truesdell, of New
York; recording secretary, Colonel Ell. c..
King, of New York; corresponding secreta-
ry, General George Fl. Sharpe, of New York.
Resolutions were adopted to hold the next
annual meeting at Gettysburg, July /, 2 and
8, 1888, and to invite the survivors of the
Army of Northern Virginia. Resolutions
in regard to the retuln of the rebel flags
were tabled. Among those present were
General w. T. Sherman and Colonel F. D.
Grant. The storm which came up at 2
o'clock continued until after 3, delaying the
procession until $3.50. The procession IVES
formed with Major General Burbridge as
chief marshal and moved with the Sixty
ninth New York infantry in front with the
Fourteenth New York infantry and the Sar-
atogo Citizens crops, followed by the veter-
ans, to Woodlawn Park where Governor Hill
and staff, General Sherman and General D.
E. Sickles were on the stand and reviewed
the procession. Chauncey NJ. Depew made
the Grafton of the day, which was in SUBJ
stance as follows
Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac: Last
summer stood upon the White Hill at
Prague, in Bohemia, where the thirty years.
suggestive spot in Europe. 1t recalled pic
ture of the horrors and desolation of war I'M
equa11ed in history. Across the vision moved
the majestic figures of Gustayus Adolphus
and Wallenstein, of Turenne and lilly and
Cardinal Richelieu. The contest began when
the continent was dominated by the German
empire and ended with the magnificent crea-
berless petty principalities. Religious zeal
supported the combatants on both Sides The
results were gains in federation of creeds,
but the losses in power and prestige, and in
devastated cities and countries were meal
culable. was struck with the parallel it
offered with our civil war. The separa-
ton of the German people into little
States, each with its court, its
army and it's jea1ousies, made Germany the
prey of conquerors for two hundred years.
Liberty IVES crushed, and the public burdens
were intolerable. Each new invader found
allies among the contending Kingdoms and
duchies, and intel lal dissensions made ma
tional unity and strength impossible. 1t was
not until after two centuries of suffering and
humiliation that the genius of Bismarck con-
solidated the German people into an empire.
Instantly they assumed their proper place
and became the strongest and most hopefcl
of European powers.
The war of the rebellion began properly
with the battle of Bull Run. 1t ended with
a short distance at Appomattox. Along
seven thousand miles of country battles were
fought and armies manoeuvred, but the
transcendent conflicts were always in Vir-
ginia. The Army OF the Potomac and the
army of Lee were the main combatants, for
whom other armies in their own gallant and
brilliant way were creating diversions,
fighting glorious battles and drawing off
the strength of the adversary. Like
the contest of the seventeenth century
ours was both a civil and religious war.
Three generations of the people of eleven
most logical statesmen of their time, that as
a matter of the highest political economy
the 1aborer should be enslaved. No other
doctrine was permitted to reach the masses,
and they became unanimous in this belief.
The church threw around this opinion its
sacred benediction, and doctors of divinity
and ambitious politicians We'd with each
other in finding excuses for slavery, the one
by distorted interpretations of the
scriptures, and the other by forced
renderings of the constitution. In the
North preacher and publicist inveighed
against it as the most fliightful curse to the
State and crime against God. But the
country came out of the conflict not like the
old German empire from the thirty years.
war confederation of Independent and war
ring States but mighty nation.
We believed from the start in unity and
nationality and upon them staked our all.
We escaped that terrible expe1ien of two
hundred years (which Germany learned her
lesson, and the American Bismarck was the
American people.
The Grafton now spoke of New York's
large help in the war of the Revolution with
men and money. Appropriate also it was
therefore that this reunion be held at Sara
toga. The battle of Saratoga was one of the
landmarks of liberty. A great critic has
placed it among the most important of the
fifteen decisive conflicts of history. The
destinies that hung on the result of the bat
tie were now depicted. Great was the help
and renewal of hope it gave the young re-
public. 1t also opened the sources of natur-
al revenue and brought French aid and
French alliance.
But not of the past but of the present
would we speak. Confederate and Federals
were equally valorous and equally sincere.
It was slavery and disunion or freedom and
union, and one must not only yield, but die.
The God of battles decided for liberty. AS
torrents of living waters flowed from the
rock smitten by Moses in the desert so from
the touch of liberty has come an industrial
revolution full of prosperity and promise.
The wastes and wildernesses of feudal bar
onies are inviting emigration to new agri-
culture and harvests of wealth, and the hills
and mountains are yielding their treasures to
the founding and building of new Birming-
hams and Sheffelds. The marvellous recu-
peration OF the whole country in the past
twenty years and our gigantic strides in ma
terial progress have almost obliterated from
memory the fact that these results are solely
due to the victories won by the armies of the
Union. Let the youth of all sections
grow up from generation to gen
Grafton taught the lesson and i'm
bued with the sentiment that this
republic is not a confederacy of Independent
State, but nation with the right and power
to use the last dollar and enlist the last man
to maintain the authority of the constitution
and the supremacy of the flag. Whoever is
offended by this is not loyal citizen, and
should reconstruct or emigrate. Englishmen
fought against Englishmen in the Revolu-
tionary war, and now to the modern and en-
lightened Briton the Fourth of July is as
triumphant day as it is for us. 1t won for
us independence, and for him larger liberties
and better government.
The results of the civil war were embod-
led in the constitution and imbedded in the
laws of the land. The speaker now alluded
to the old soldier pensioning question and
gracefully, eloquently defended the pension
ing of these men who suffered under blazing
suns, in dismal swamps, in rebel prisons and
before the cannon's mouth, who staked their
all for liberty.
The nations tremendous reeuperation was
now spoken of and blow struck at anarch-
lists and great spectators. Mr.. Depew said:
In 1860 the developed and assessable proper
ty of the United States was valued at six
teen thousand millions of dollars. One-half
of this enormous sum was destroyed by the
growth of wealth under the conditions Great
ed by the national victory, and the
settlements of reconstruction, that in
this month of June. 1887, the